Are the three names on the ballot (in alphabetical order) for the grand prize of the 43th fibd. The Auteur.E.S of comics publié.e.s in France have been invité.e.s, between 13 and 17 January last, to give freely, without order of preference, between one and three names of auteur.e.s vivant.e.s, to reward for the whole of their Work and their imprint on the history of the comic.
These names will be, therefore, proposed to vote for the second round. This one will be opened on Wednesday, January 20 and will end on Sunday, January 24 (at midnight). The name of the winner. E of the 43th Grand Prix International Festival of comics will be announced on Wednesday, 27 January, at 18 pm at the Alpha, the media center of angouleme, by katsuhiro otomo, Grand Prix Du Festival 2015.

In case you are curious, Claire Wendling is a woman. Interestingly, she isn’t one of the names that was most campaigned for after the disaster of the all male nominee list, but she is certainly credentialed. An astual resident of Angoulême, Wendling won the Alph’Art price at the festival in the past and worked on many comics before moving more into animation, where she’s worked on The Quest for Camelot and many video games. Her comics work is a smaller portion of her output than her concept work, but it’s all spectacular. In fact, they couldn’t have named a more talented nominee.

Hermann Huppen is one of the all time greats of French cartooning, and I’m a little surprised he hasn’t won the grand prix before. He created Jeremiah and a zillion other things, and remains active at age 77.

Alan Moore you probably know. So there you go, three great creators for an esteemed prize. Maybe this debacle can be saved after all.

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.

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Hermann hasn’t won precisely because he had few friends among the previous winners. Until three years ago, the winners were voted by the previous ones, a selection method that kept many worthy creators out for decades.

Most of the past winners knew very few people outside the french-belgian comics industry, for example. And the belgians themselves (Hermann among them) were rarely voted in. So although they represent a considerable portion of the french-language comics production (a third or more – including most of the top sellers!), only three of them actually won a Grand Prix – and no less than Lucky Luke creator Morris only won an anniversary award (same as Claire Bretécher). More AMERICANS won the Grand Prix than belgians!

So, much like the women, the belgians are seriously underrepresented among the Angoulême award winners. Must also add that, much like Moore, Hermann isn’t the most sociable of creators (at least that’s what people say, he was a gentleman when I met him at a festival here in Portugal years ago!). And he most certainly wouldn’t accept a “consolation prize” like the anniversary awards…